An organization must ponder several times and answer several questions before it goes about implementing a document management system. Some of the questions that must be asked can be:-
(1) Are your documents uniformly marked and stored for "finger-pointed" retrieval.
(2) Can you easily gather related documents that are physically distributed at different places.
(3) Can your personnel easily locate documents created or modified by others within the organization, regardless of the format and method of creation of the documents.
(4) How long does it take to locate the desired bunch of documents.
(5) Can you find a specific type of similar documents over a date range quickly and effectively.
(6) Can you track back the person responsible for handling any particular document.
Answering the above questions can easily help you take a decision. Also, to arrive at a conclusion, one must keep in mind the following characteristics of a suitable document management system.
(a) Should convert your office into a paper-less office by electronically keeping track of all documents.
(b) Should seamlessly integrate with your existing manual document management methods.
(c) Should help your business grow faster by ensuring fast and accurate availability of information.
(d) Should help you analyze the efficiency of co-workers by keeping track of documentation work allotted to them.
Some words about Amit Khemka (author of this article)
india based technology expert specialising in web marketing and 3d modeling